84-Year-Old Woman Loses Arm In Alligator Attack

during a practice round of the 94th PGA Championship at the Ocean Course on August 8, 2012 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.

File photo of an alligator. (credit: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)

LEESBURG, Fla. (CBS Tampa) — An elderly Lake County woman has lost her arm during an alligator attack near her home.

Authorities tell the Orlando Sentinel that 84-year-old Carol Hough is in critical condition after getting her left arm ripped off in a canal outside her Leesburg mobile home on Wednesday morning.

Del Zickefoose spotted Hough in the canal screaming for help after she was attacked by an 8-foot alligator.

“I went in the water and just got her back to shore here and just held her in my arms,” Zickefoose told WFTV. “And she was alert, but her arm was gone.”

The Sentinel reports that a Lake County Sheriff’s deputy spotted the alligator following the attack and that officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are monitoring it. Wildlife spokeswoman Joy Hill says that they will capture and kill the gator.

Hough is currently being treated at the Orlando Regional Medical Center.